


I love you too

by Pancakepants



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Babybones, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Monsters are established Aboveground, Old Child Adoption, Slice of Life, adjusting issues, fear of strangers, fear/yearning for love, learning experiences, more tags with more chaptes, parent/child bonding moments, small amounts of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-09-19 12:25:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9440360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pancakepants/pseuds/Pancakepants
Summary: You've decided to opt for older child adoption.Why not adopt a pair of problematic monster children? What could possibly go wrong?





	1. It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

**Author's Note:**

> I found this drabble from my Drive and decided to post it, even though I haven't written more. I have ideas for further chapters, but hopefully someone will like this short tidbit. There will be no update schedule, however!
> 
> Do note that I have no actual experience with child psychology or adopting children. If I've described something completely bonkers, holler me and I'll see how to fix it!
> 
>  
> 
> [SFW Tumblr](http://pancakehaven.tumblr.com/)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adoption is supposed to be a hard and long-span business, right?!

 

 

_August_

 

You were sitting in the adoption office, fiddling with your thumbs nervously. The worst heat of summer had passed, but you still felt uncomfortably sweaty. You were sure you had thought about this through and through multiple times through the weeks already, but you still felt tense and your stomach had surely twisted around itself at least twice. You wanted children. You weren’t able to produce any and once your husband found out after the examination, he packed his stuff and left. So to fill the gap the ungrateful dirtbag left behind in your house and heart, you decided to fill it up. With a kid or two.

So, why not monster children?

You'd expected to wait for the adoption to happen after years, but only after half a year after applying, you were informed of a pair of monster brothers in a dire need of settlement. Seems that for some reason no monsters didn't want to take them and they didn't fare well in the orphanage, either running away or one of them causing fights. And difficult magical monster children weren't the popular choice to adopt.

Okay, so what if the kids could throw some magic around during their tantrums?

Even as a single parent, you were healthy, young, had a well paying, loosely timed job and education in psychology, which made you a good candidate for adoption. Especially with a difficult case such as this one. You'd dealt successfully with difficult therapy patients before. Surely you could apply your knowledge to raising offspring.

You’d seen their pictures and gotten their information slips, which you were browsing yet again.

 

 _~~Race~~ _ _Species: Skeleton monsters_

_Background: Unknown, found in a ditch sickly and malnourished. The older one had been stealing food for survival. They haven't told anything about their past, possible amnesia._

_Sans, 8 years old(according to him). Healthy. Bone bullet magic, other abilities possible. Silent, secretive. Doesn’t listen to directions. Difficult to handle. Extremely protective of his brother, to the point of violence. Has broken out of orphanage/caretaker’s house multiple times with his brother just to be found again._

_Papyrus, 3(according to Sans). Healthy. No detected attack magic. Relies on his brother. Generic toddler. Afraid and shy but once warms up, likes attention._

 

There was no other information given. You jotted down into your notebook a reminder to ask more about these mysterious little monsters. What did they eat? How were they cared for, did they need special clothes or hygiene? Did they need specific magical training that you weren’t able to provide? You’d written a whole page full of questions, your handwriting getting more and more scribbly and cramped until you sighed and closed the notebook.

Alright well, so what if you didn't know one thing about monster anatomy or magic, let alone anything about growing their children?

You were sure all such things could be handled when such a situation presented itself.

You were determined to make this work.

The door opened to the office and and a bubbly, perky woman in bright business attire clothing welcomed you in. The social workers you had discussed and trained with earlier weren’t there, the people in the room were unknown to you. An older, thin, bored looking man suited in black was standing in the corner, fiddling with his phone. Next to him on the bench there was a black briefcase and two small skeletons huddled close to each other, only slightly larger than the briefcase. Their summer clothes were second-hand and too large for their frames, even though they seemed to fit better than one would expect for skeletons. They tensed up as you walked in. The man in the corner stepped to you, holding out his hand. Introductions were made, he had contacted your adoption service and arranged this meeting.

“So, here they are. Come on now, say hello to your new mother!”

You managed not to cringe at his forcefully cheery words. That wasn’t the first impression you wanted to give the children. Understandably they wouldn’t accept you right away, you were just as much a stranger as all the social workers who had worked with them. You crouched down onto their eye level, talking with a calm voice.

“Hi there, my name is ____. You can call me with my first name if you don’t want to call me your mother, that is completely fine. So, which one of you is Sans and which one Papyrus?”

They were an interesting sight. You had met many monsters before during work and freetime, but you met their children less often and you’d never seen a skeleton monster before. You’d seen their pictures, but it was a whole different thing seeing two small skeletons moving around. They looked like human skeletons, but with much thicker bones and malleable faces. The bigger one had small, quivering white lights in his eye sockets and his teeth, were surrounded by cheeks made out of bone, while the smaller one’s skull looked more traditional. You knew already that the smaller one clearly was Papyrus, who was shyly trying to hide behind his big brother’s arm, pressing his face against his t-shirt’s fabric. Sans looked at you blankly and didn’t answer. You didn’t let your smile falter. Such a cold welcome was to be expected.

“Well I’m gonna guess that you,” you looked at Sans touching his knee gently, “are Sans and you little man over there...” You moved so that you could catch Papyrus’ eyes better, when he’d look at you again. When he did you gave him a playful wave, which rewarded you with surprised look and a small smile. “...is Papyrus!”

He waved back timidly, which made you smile wider. That’s a good start at least. You started digging through your bag.

“Now I want to talk with you two a bit more soon, but first I need to talk to the social worker. So for meanwhile I brought you these!” You pulled out two juice boxes and two cookies that you’d baked. Papyrus squealed and extended his arm for the sweets, but as you were giving them, Sans quickly snatched them away from you, quietly saying “gimme those”. You didn’t see his mouth move. You were about to scold him when you saw him cover one of the juice boxes and cookies in a thin, blue glow. As the glow disappeared, he opened the juice box and gave it and the cookie to the more or less patiently waiting Papyrus with a “here you go, pap”. The tiny skeleton immediately(somehow) sipped from his box and started nibbling on the cookie.

“he can’t grab yet.” Sans said while opening his own juice box. There was no thank you, but you’d work on that later on.

Maybe they needed better magic control for grabbing since they didn’t have skin? “Oh… So you did something to the box and cookie? Made them grabbable?”

“yeah.”

“That’s so nice of you. I’m happy to see that you take such good care of your brother.”

He looked away towards Papyrus while sipping on his own juice box and didn’t say anything, but you thought you saw some new blue colour on his cheeks. You stood back up and turned back to the man. You went through the adoption paperwork and everything seemed to be under order. You spoke up while browsing the papers through one more time.

“So… When will we meet again? Maybe in some more relaxed location, I hope? I-”

Your eyes locked on a date written on the document.

“Wait, it says here that the adoption date is… today. I thought there will be more meetings before the adoption is finalized?”

The woman who welcomed you and had been smiling a bit too widely, staying silent in the corner until now coughed gently. She came closer and spoke with a hushed tone.

“Actually, the situation is that the orphanage is already filled to the brim, and we promised their beds to other children who moved in today. They don't cope well at all with the other children there anyways. We haven't found any other foster parents that are willing to take them for the time being, so… could you possibly take them already today?” She asked, her face wincing with the question.

What.

“You're not serious.”

She was.

They rushed you through the paperwork, assuring that everything will be fine and you could call for assistance and advice any time and there would be a social worker checking on you later on. After no time at all, you were sitting back in your car, with two small skeletons in the back seat, too small for the seat belts so they were sitting on lousy versions of booster seats, one on the backbag filled with their low amount of belongings and another on a stack of blankets you had in your trunk. You sat in silence for a few breaths.

_They were just tossed into your arms like mangy dogs._

You jerked the car key in the lock somewhat roughly and sped away from the office.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure everything will turn out fine!


	2. Start Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _she's gone pap, let's go._
> 
> _ARE YOU SURE? I THINK SHE'S-_
> 
> _you know how they always are at first, and then things get worse real quick. i'll lift you, hurry!_

 

 

_September_

 

One early morning, the phone rang. It was the adoption office, again. You sighed and answered.

“Morning. They’re there? Alright, I’m on my way.”

You unhurriedly put on some decent clothes, left the house and headed for the car.

 

~~~

 

The beginning…

Well.

It went as one might expect.

You introduced your large, empty house to the small skeletons, made sure that they knew where the bathroom kitchen were and you ensured them that there was always food available. You decided to go through house rules later, you tried to keep the situation less chaotic than it already was. The room meant for them was still mostly empty, as you obviously hadn't expected to have a couple of kids shoved into your arms after the very first meeting. Both of them had stayed silent during the whole ordeal, Papyrus staring at everything with eye sockets wide as plates(you swore you could see something glimmer in them) and Sans with sullen, yet interested glances. You didn't quite appreciate the calculative look in his eyes, too adult for a child to have.

After a quick, mostly silent dinner you could see how Papyrus kept on nodding his head and Sans’ eye lights were growing hazy, so you directed them to your bedroom with a connected bathroom. Sans assured you that he'd rather put Papyrus to bed himself, they had all they needed. You decided to trust him and give them some space, it's been quite an eventful day after all.

You settled down on the sofa, planning to stay up. It was rather early to sleep after all, so you opened a book, deciding to check on the boys after a few chapters before settling down yourself. You promptly fell asleep, waking up at the early hours of morning. Staying up late last night hadn't been the best idea. You decided to check on the boys quickly before catching a few more hours of sleep.

Nothing could've woken you faster, than finding the bed untouched and the window wide open.

A few panic induced hours later, calling the police and waking up the whole neighbourhood while searching for the children, about to head out and spread missing posters, you received a callback from the adoption office. They'd found the boys, hiding in someone's garage. Again, they were gingerly handed to you, accompanied with “encouragement”. ‘ _Oh, they tend to be like this, you’ll figure it out!’._ No one asked a thing. No one wanted to know, what had happened, nor how would you handle the situation.

It made you angrier than the kids escaping.

The ride back home was quiet, you didn’t even try to figure out what to say, how to scold them. You were exhausted, fueled by your anger that came after the relief of hearing that the boys were okay, but… You looked to the back seat through the rear-view window.

They looked even more exhausted. Their clothes were muddy and tattered. Sans’ face was sullen, his eye sockets were circled by a gentle dark hue and he stared through the window.  Papyrus’ face was covered with orange, dried up tear- and snot tracks and he looked like a lifeless puppet, leaning to his brother with his sockets half-lid. Like he didn’t have the energy to react to anything anymore, too upset to fall asleep. You focused on driving.

Back at your house you gently ushered the two small skeletons into the bathroom with their back bags and made sure they had spare clothes to change into, leaving them there so Sans could clean them both. While you waited for them to finish cleaning and drying, listening to their soft murmurs through the door, one soft, one higher pitched and a bit louder, you wondered how to handle the situation from then on. Coming to a decision, you nodded to yourself and went to visit the kitchen quickly.

As you came back and set down a tray onto a table, the skeletons came out in as equally ragged and unfitting clothing as before, but at least they were clean this time. You sat on your knees onto the floor in front of them.

“There you are, nice and clean. Quite the night, huh?”

Neither said nothing, looking away. You thought you could see Papyrus tremble a bit. You sighed.

“Look, boys. I’m not mad. You’re not in trouble. You’ve been through a lot and we’ve had a rough start, but I’m not giving up on you two. Now, I take it that you’re both hungry and tired. Am I right?”

They looked up, their mouths open, Sans incredulous and Papyrus stupefied, his eyes brimming with small tears. Papyrus nodded and talked, and Sans turned to him quickly, taking his hand.

“WE’RE- WE’RE NOT IN TROUBLE?”

Papyrus’ shrill voice surprised you as you hadn’t heard him directly talk to anyone, except his brother before. While you were glad, you were sad that this was the first time he felt the need to talk. You wondered, what must’ve their earlier experiences been, when caught and brought back. You didn’t show your worry, instead, you smiled.

“No, you’re not. Tell you what, let’s start over. What’s your name?”

You introduced yourself and reached out your hand. Sans didn’t react, seeming to almost wanting to step back, but Papyrus seemed to have gathered up his courage, grabbing your hand and shaking it the best he could, with his small, boney hand.

“HI! I’M PAPYRUS. THIS IS MY BROTHER, SANS.”

You chuckled. “Such a lively handshake! Now, I’d like to get to know you both better but I can see how tired you are. I brought you some juice and sandwiches. After eating you can nap as long as you want, I won’t mind, and then we can- oof!”  
  
Papyrus had shaken off his horrified brother’s hand(“ _papyrus, wh-”)_ and rushed forward, hugging you around the neck. A moment later however, before you managed to react, he went stiff and quickly pulled away, blubbering fast and almost panicked.

“I- I’M SORRY, I DIDN’T M-MEAN TO, I JUST-”

He gasped silently as you gently pulled him back to the hug. He hugged again, unhurried this time, but you could feel him trying to hold in his crying, judging from the way he was softly shaking. You reached a hand for Sans as an offering, but as you had expected, he shied away. He sure was a piece of work, huh…

After a while of hugging and soft murmurs of affirmation, you called the brothers to sit on the bed to eat their sandwiches, while you sat on a chair. You’d clean the bread crumbs off later. The boys were clearly hungry and thirsty, but also so tired that they barely finished their meals. Sans nudged Papyrus twice, as he zoned out while eating. This time, after they were done and confirmed that they didn’t need to use the bathroom(you didn’t know did they need to, nor were you going to figure out now), you made sure that they got tucked under the sheets and closed the curtains, as it was late morning already and the sun was up.

“So! You boys look… _bone-_ tired already,” You heard a soft groan together with a giggle, and you thought you could see Sans’ fixed grin twitch upwards, “do you need anything else? Hmm… Maybe a bedtime story?”

The way Papyrus’ eye sockets glimmered mysteriously told you enough. You had no books, so you grabbed your tablet, searched for bedtime stories online, chose one and started to read.

“Fluffy bunny hopped around, left and right, up and down. All day and all night…”

Before you even reached half of the story, Papyrus was fast asleep. You still finished the story, and read the one afterwards about the Playful Puppy. Still, Sans seemed to have difficulties sleeping, as he kept on gazing up to the ceiling, snapping his eye sockets open every now and then. You put the tablet away, and pulled your chair closer to his side.

“Heya. Can’t sleep?”

No answer.

“I meant it what I said earlier. You’re not in trouble, either of you.”

Sans glanced towards his brother.

“And I didn’t lock the window or anything. I’m not going to stop you from leaving, but you’ll always be returned here. And I’ll always welcome you. I hope you both will soon be able to call this house your home. I wish… I wish that one day, you’ll trust me on that.”

While he didn’t want to say anything, you saw that he’d heard you by the way his eye lights fluttered and he briefly looked at you.

“I’ll be reading in the corner until you fall asleep, alright?”

You silently moved your chair, grabbed a book you’d been meaning to finish for a while, attached a reading light on it and settled down. Soon enough, you heard the calm, slower breathing of slumber from both of the skeletons. Sans' pose and grin were more relaxed and he’d turned towards his brother. You stayed for a couple hours, reading till your book was finished, listening to their breathing, however that happened. Finally, you got up and exited the bedroom, closing the door quietly. You smiled at the calm view on the bed, hoping to see them as happy later on, too.

You’d get there yet.

 

~~~

 

After three days, they ran away again.

During the next few weeks, this repeated every so often. And every single time, they were found during the next 48 hours, either by the neighbours, by the police or most often, by the adoption office. It was a curious thing, but you didn’t bother questioning it, as they assured you that they had quite some experience with runaways. Soon, all your neighbours knew about your new family addition. Either because you’d asked them about them, they’d seen you walking with them or the word had traveled fast. You felt their curious looks, both humans’ and monsters’. No one seemed opposed about it, but no one was supportive either. You didn’t mind, you were used to handling your own businesses yourself, successfully too, by far. You just hoped, that things wouldn’t turn for the worse.

The skeleton brothers always returned weary, dirty and upset, but never hurt. You never asked, why were they running away, never got mad or scolding. Every time, you focused on getting them back home, getting them cleaned, fed and rested, and focusing on bringing them back to a routine. And every time you saw how upset Papyrus was.

You’d quickly acquired them all the basic necessities. New, fitting clothes(Papyrus wanted all the brightest colours, Sans was most comfortable with loose, cozy clothes) and furniture in their own room. Toys that Papyrus liked, Sans had turned your offer down when you’d suggested him to choose some, happy to just watch his brother play. He liked to watch science shows when they were on, so you planned to take him to the library and fetch him some books and magazines. He needed to start school as soon as possible too, so you were researching, should you take him to a public school or keep him home schooled. It would need to wait for as long as they, no, Sans was persistent on trying to run away with Papyrus. And that the matter you needed to root out and extinguish.

One evening, you were sorting out your work papers at the kitchen table, while Papyrus played on the living room floor with Sans sitting next to him, content on just watching. Papyrus was most interested in all kinds of puzzles, developing faster and sharper with every single one, causing you to buy him always more intricate ones to solve. Their difficulty was way past what a normal three-year-old human child could handle, even if he acted like one otherwise. You encouraged all progress, pleased to see him happy and focused at his task.

You noticed that you’d zoned out, looking at the kids, when Sans had stood up, walking to the kitchen, past you and the table. His grin and posture looked relaxed, happy even. Even with the continuous escape attempts, you’d managed to calm the little skeleton down at least somewhat. He looked completely different from the first day you’d fetched them. He still stayed relatively quiet, only answering direct questions, but it was progress.

He grabbed a glass and juice from the fridge. After pouring the glass full, he started to walk back.

“Sans, the juice.”

He glanced at you, then the juice carton he’d left on the table.

“oh, right.”

He set the glass down and returned the juice to the fridge from the table.

“You sure look cheerful today. What’s the occasion?”

Sans started, his hand twitching as he was reaching for the cup. It looked like he was about to shrug and give some neutral answer, when you both heard Papyrus squeal with delight(“THE BLUE PART FIT!”) and watched him merrily dance around his solved puzzle. You glanced back at Sans and had to make a double take when you saw his expression. His grin looked like a genuine, large smile now, crinkling his eye sockets, which were filled with his dilated eye lights. His answer was absentminded, soft.

“dunno. stuff.”

 

~~~

 

They didn’t try to run away anymore, after that.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _... maybe we could stay for a while longer._


	3. A Whole New World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where you start fixing Sans, piece by piece.

 

_October_

 

The need to return back to work creeps up on you, finally, approximately one month after acquiring your newest family additions. Luckily the trip to your office isn’t long. Actually, your office is behind the door which you enter from the kitchen, a small, cozy therapy room. Warm colours, stylish furniture, a window with a view to the park next to your house. A comfortable environment where your clients may relax and open up with your soothing voice and professional guidance.

And that was what your current client was doing, opening up.

In other words, bawling their eyes out, sitting on the sofa.

With permission, you were sitting next to them, rubbing their back and offering them tissues, letting them cry their long withheld emotions out. This was a breakthrough, after months of sessions. This was where the healing could truly begin. This was-

The door from the kitchen opened slowly, and while it was quiet you still heard it, making you lift your gaze. Your eyes widened, when you saw Papyrus peek in, curiously. He opened his mouth as if to speak, and you quickly lifted your index finger to your pursed lips to motion him to stay quiet. You weren’t ashamed of your new children. But you had enough sense to understand that it most likely wasn’t smart to show a monster, who looked similar to a human child skeleton, to a woman, who was finally properly mourning her dear, deceased relative.

Papyrus scrunched his brow bones together, looking befuddled while scratching the back of his neck, which made a soft, grating noise. He seemed to huff, annoyed, opening his mouth to try to talk again. You motioned him to keep his dear and wonderful yet _loud_ little mouth shut, frantically. You needed to get rid of him. Your client was busy burying her face in her hands, luckily, so you rose up after patting her back once more with an ‘excuse me for a moment’ and rushed to shoo Papyrus back to the house.

Turns out that he just _had_ to know, directly from you, if there’s a way how he could turn into an octopus.

A simple answer of course wasn’t enough, followed by a bunch of ‘why’ questions, which you didn’t have time for. You asked him to go as his brother.

 “HE TOLD ME TO COME ASK YOU!”

 _What? Didn’t he know_ \- You leaded Papyrus to the brothers’ room, where Sans was browsing a comic book, seemingly bored. Papyrus spotted his stuffed bunny toy in the corner, sitting in front of an abandoned puzzle and returned back to it, giggling(“ _DID YOU TRY TO SOLVE IT BY YOURSELF, MISTER HOPPY?_ ”).

You walked to Sans. It was late morning and you’d expected the children to sleep late, especially after last night’s movie that you’d allowed them to watch past their usual bedtime. Even then, you’d written a note onto their door, telling how here’s breakfast in the fridge and that you’d be busy till the afternoon, coming to check on them in between clients. It also asked Sans to look after his brother, as you’d expected him to read it. You glanced at the note, still attached to the door.

“Didn’t you see the note? I have a client, I need you to keep Papyrus in the house.”

Sans glanced at you, and the note. His disinterested expression didn’t change a bit, as he continued to read his comic, but you thought you saw his eye lights shrink a bit.

“must’ve missed it.”

You huffed. There was no way he could’ve missed it. It was written with a bright colour pencil, with a big font and it was attached to the door handle. She’d written the same thing onto the fridge. You didn’t have time to inquire more, so you rushed back to your still-sobbing client. You soon forgot about the whole thing, making sure that the kids knew when you were working and to generally avoid opening the office door when it was closed.

Similar incidents kept on piling up, however.

All the notes you wrote were ignored. When Papyrus would ask Sans what some phrase meant in a book, he seemed to act all-knowing… Except when you were close enough to see what the book actually said, you realized that he was making most of his explanations up completely.  He hadn’t touched any of the books you’d brought into their room, just browsing through comic books or the books with pictures in them. After a while, you had to admit it to yourself.

It was quite likely, that Sans was illiterate.

You hadn’t thought about it earlier, trying to slowly and carefully ease the skeletons to live with you, introducing one thing at a time to them. Papyrus was slowly warming up to you, readily talking to you, like a toddler did, but he was still a bit shy of your touch. He allowed it, when you patted his head or shoulder, almost leaning to it. He also accepted you holding his hand while walking outside, when Sans wasn’t holding one. But he didn’t reciprocate otherwise, even though it looked like he really, really wanted to. Something was stopping him, either his past, or Sans, or both.

Sans on the other hand, had stayed in the same, barely docile state as back, when the kids had stopped running away from the house. He answered to you with few words when asked, followed the few rules you’d slowly established, otherwise staying quiet, never straying far from Papyrus. He didn’t seem as nervous and opposed as before, but no matter how relaxed he acted, you could sense how tense he always was. The difference between his serene sleeping state compared to the awake, always alert one was vast. No other proof was needed, which is why you'd tried to take things slow. You were especially kind and patient with him, always making sure to communicate clearly what you wanted from him, never raising your tone, giving him space.

Causing you to miss the clear signs of his inability to read.

He’d been excellent at hiding it, you had to give that to him. But still, now it was one more thing to add to the list of things you needed to teach him now. He’d denied going to a public school, because he didn’t want to be apart from Papyrus. You’d ask him again, when Papyrus was school-age and they could attend together. But for now, you’d decided to educate him yourself. And this was the day to start.

Just to make sure, you tested him. One day, when Papyrus was studying in their room, you asked Sans to come to the kitchen table. You kept up a women’s summer magazine.

“Can you read this?”

“yeah.”

“Please read the text out loud for me.”

His grin stayed fixed, his voice stable and his eye sockets perpetually half lidded. But his eye lights were fluttering. He waved his hand nonchalantly.

“it’s something uninteresting about a half naked human.”

“Sans.”

Now, he stayed silent. He slowly put his hands into his pocket, glancing repeatedly to you and the magazine. You could see moisture on his skull, was it sweat? You sighed, and you let your exasperation be heard through your voice.

“You can’t read. Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Then, you saw something you’ve never seen before coming from the small child monster. His eye sockets went dark momentarily and the left one ignited with a blue, slowly smoldering flame. One of his hands was out, also glowing. It felt, like the room got darker and the atmosphere made a cold chill run down your band. You’d seen magic manifestations before. You’d learned about Intent. Even if humans, according to common knowledge, couldn’t use magic, they could still sense Intent and use it similarly, while interacting with monsters. You could sense Sans’ Intent now.

Sans was preparing to fight.

“... so what if i can’t read? what is it to you?”

His voice didn’t belong to a child anymore, having lowered by multiple levels. His grin looked painfully stretched now, and he’d crouched down somewhat. You forced yourself to stay still, not to back down.

_Look closer._

As you sensed his Intent longer, you could feel that he wasn’t actually willing to attack, but to defend. He was trying to look scarier, bigger.

_Sans was afraid of you._

You decided to take the initiative, before anything escalated. This needed to stop right now.

You slowly reached out for the glowing hand.

“don’t _touch m_ -”

Sans flinched, as you took his hand, but soon his eye sockets widened. You’d focused purely on positive emotions, calming, relaxing feelings. Concern, affection, love. Your human Intent overpowered his easily, automatically calming his magic down from the touch. He was now staring at you, all his normal defenses gone, grin relaxed, astonished, wondering. You spoke again, after a while, softly.

“To me it means, that I have taken you into my house, and it’s my will and responsibility to take care of you and your brother. To feed you, to clothe you, to make sure you get educated.”

You put a pencil into his hand, closing and holding it gently.

“Sans, that means that I’m going to teach you. To read, and to do so much more. Do you understand?”

“... ok.”

 

~~~

 

You were prepared for study sessions.

You’d researched on how to get started. You’d expected that you had to start from the very beginning, with first grade stuff. You got all the needed books and materials, you’d even taken some education lectures back when you’d been studying. You were going to figure out, how Sans would learn the best and use that info for your benefit.

You thought you were prepared.

Nothing could’ve prepared you for _this_.

Sans… was far more intelligent than you’d expected. You’d only needed to teach him the alphabets, how they were used in english language and how were they written, read and spoken aloud. In a matter of days, he could read by himself. You actually had to go change all your elementary school books to way more advanced ones at the bookstore, once you figured out how much he truly knew about every subject.

It turned out, that he was the most advanced with maths and physics, far above your understanding. You taught him numbers and the basic symbols, then supervised him while he calculated swimmingly through all the material you’d gathered and even further, way beyond your high school level education, just to find that even that barely scratched the surface of what he was actually capable of. By the end of the week, you were bringing him university grade science books.

Sans had gained all this ridiculously enormous amount of information from somewhere, for sure. You didn’t believe him to have just magically conjured it out of nowhere. You’d seen him write weird symbols and do odd hand signs while he was concentrating on some calculation. He looked startled when he noticed what he was doing, erasing the scribbles immediately. Still he claimed that he couldn’t remember anything from before the months before the adoption office found them, or then he didn’t want to tell you. You couldn’t tell only by his reluctance to talk about it.

But you didn’t push. Instead, you focused on the moment you were experiencing now.

Elated wasn’t a word strong enough to describe the feeling you got, when you handed him one of the Science issues he’d been only browsing for the pictures, for the first time after he’d learned some basic reading. His eye lights dilated, when he realized, that he could finally understand what the articles discussed. You saw, what you considered to be his first genuine smile, apart from when he spent time with his brother.

And when he finally got a proper hang of reading… he wouldn’t stop.

From then on Sans’ head was glued to anything he was able to read. A book, magazine, the tablet you’d bought for him, anything. He read everything you handed to him, read and memorized his school books with no objections, just to ask you to bring him more books. He didn’t refuse any book, but undoubtedly appreciated science related material the most. It was the first time he’d asked you for something! He didn’t even mind you spending alone time with Papyrus, anymore, trusting you enough to be with him so that he could read in peace. He busied himself with reading so much, that it upset Papyrus, who was used to Sans’ constant attention! After some time, they found a good balance for spending time with each other, and now Sans could read storybooks out loud to Papyrus, which clearly pleased them both to no end.

After weeks had gone by, Sans had become almost autonomous with his studies. You only needed to test his knowledge from time to time. You couldn’t fathom, what a wonderful and bright boy he was, despite his snarky attitude that you’d still clash with multiple times in the future, most likely. You were already dreaming, what a bright future you could offer him. And Papyrus too, who knows, maybe he’ll grow just as bright!

After another successful study session(more like interrogation, with you asking questions and him easily answering them) he caught you smiling fondly at you. You didn’t mind, but he clearly did.

“... what?”

“Nothing.”

“we’re done for today right? so why’re you starin’?”

“I was just thinking about how proud I am.”

“of what?”

“You.”

It was bittersweet. How his normal laid-back facade dropped for a moment, showing the impact of your words. His eye lights shrunk, his brow bones raised up. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. He quickly controlled his face, but a soft, blue blush covered his face afterwards. It was adorable. The bitterness came from thinking, how he’s possibly never gotten praised before. He quickly gathered his books and rushed towards the brothers’ room. Before he went in and closed the door, you heard talk softly, facing away from you.

 

 

“... thank you.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (◡‿◡✿)

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback appreciated! I LOVE ALL COMMENTS, DON'T BE SHY!
> 
> [SFW Tumblr](http://pancakehaven.tumblr.com/)


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